Senator Kennedy’s plan will impose severe cuts on the student loan industry. Many current participants will no longer be able to provide loans to students. A few large lenders may still be able to participate, but borrowers will not enjoy the choice, competition and benefits they now see in the FFELP programs.

The House Democrats have just plain lied to their constituents about delivering half-off interest rates to student loan borrowers. It’s a nice tactic to get your attention. Banks make easy targets because who likes them anyway? It’s easy for Senator Kennedy to get up in front of the Senate and claim that his plan is taking away billions from the student loan lenders and giving it to the most needy college borrowers. He’s a modern-day Robin Hood.

He’s stealing alright, but not from the wealthy. He’s taking away choice, opportunities and cold, hard cash from the working class families who need additional help to see their sons and daughters through college.

He’s not giving to the poor. He’s playing a shell game. For a few extra grant dollars for college, he’s committing the American people to a huge deficit spending plan to generate enough money to fund this mess. Once the poor get out of college, they can start paying taxes on the billions of dollars the Feds had to borrow to pay for this program.

He’s demolishing a program that the Brookings Institution called one of the 50 greatest accomplishments of the US Federal government. The public-private partnership that created the student loan industry has always worked well. Private lenders have always been ready, willing and able to fund the hopes and dreams of students who wanted to go to college and couldn’t otherwise afford to. The FFELP lenders have always stepped in when the Federal government failed to produce enough grant money for students of ordinary means to go to college

For some reason, Senator Kennedy doesn’t like that idea. It’s somehow better to drive the government deeper into debt than it is to use and improve the plan that’s funded 50 million American dreams in the last 42 years.

It’s not too late to avoid disaster. Call, write or email your Senators today and tell them that you want to preserve choice in lending through the FFEL program. Tell Senator Robin Hood that robbing the working class of the FFEL program will have catastrophic effects on America and in the long run, it won’t save the government a dime.

You can make a difference
Call your Senators
Send your Senators an e-mail
Download a letter and fax it to your Senators
Sign the petition and
Tell your friends the truth about the proposed student loan legislation